KINSHASA, DR Congo
Five defendants accused of involvement in last year's murder of the Italian ambassador to DR Congo requested bail Wednesday during a military court hearing in the capital Kinshasa.
According to AFP reporters
present at the hearing, one of the lawyers representing the Congolese
defendants asked for his clients to be bailed from prison because "they
are purely and simply innocent".
A sixth person allegedly
implicated in the murder is on the run.
Italy's ambassador to the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Luca Attanasio, was among three people killed on
February 22, 2021, when a United Nations convoy was ambushed in the country's
troubled east.
The other fatalities were
driver Mustapha Milambo and Italian police officer Vittorio Iacovacci.
Lawyer Joseph Amzati argued on
Wednesday that the military court lacked the jurisdiction to try the defendants
because they are civilians.
But prosecutor Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Malikidogo said a military tribunal was appropriate because the accused had allegedly used "weapons and munitions of war" in the attack.
He added that releasing the
defendants would be scandalous because of the "indescribable gravity"
of their alleged crimes.
Congolese police announced in
January that they had arrested the alleged perpetrators of the 2021 attack,
describing the ambush as a kidnap-for-ransom attempt gone wrong.
The trial began on October 12 but it was immediately suspended at the request of the defence lawyers, who argued that they had not seen the case file. The next hearing is expected on October 26. - AFP
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